In March 2010, John Dean was named Executive Chairman of Central Pacific Bank, where he is working to improve capital ratios by focusing on the bank’s core business and traditional markets in Hawai‘i. John is also Managing General Partner of Startup Capital Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture fund. He has 20 years of experience as CEO of five financial services companies. From 1993 to 2001, he served as the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, a leading provider of financial services to early-stage technology companies and venture capital firms. John grew Silicon Valley Bank's market capitalization from $65 million in 1993 to over $3 billion in 2000. Also, he led the creation of the company's own venture investment business, with the launch of the company's first two venture capital funds in 2000. This included a $150 million fund of funds, and a $65 million direct equity fund. In 1997, Business Week recognized John as one of Silicon Valley's top 25 "movers and shakers" and, in 2001, Forbes ranked him as one of the "50 most powerful dealmakers." In 2001, Fortune ranked Silicon Valley Bank, under John's leadership, among the "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" based on growth in revenues, earnings per share, and total market return over three years.
John also has many years of experience investing in technology companies. He has served as Managing Director of Tuputele Ventures Fund, LLC, a small private equity fund investing in early-stage technology companies and venture capital funds. He is an investment director for various venture capital firms, both in the U.S. and overseas, including Advanced Technology Venture (ATV), Institutional Venture Fund (IVP), Walden International, Leapfrog Ventures, and Authosis Capital. John serves as an advisor or director of various technology companies, including EzRez Software, H-5 Technologies, and BioImagene. John was a founding director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation in Silicon Valley and for a six-month period during 2001-2002, was its interim CEO.
Bennett Wo is a Vice President of C.S. Wo & Sons, where his responsibilities include asset management, alternative investments, and internet applications. As a founding partner of Wo Capital Group, he oversees investments in private equity and venture capital.
He is also managing partner of BJM Properties, a real estate development fund, BJM Partners, a fund which invests in early-stage Hawai'i companies, and The Wo Private Equity Fund, a fund which invests globally in private equity.
Prior responsibilities at C.S. Wo included managing the company's restaurant supply subsidiary (American Restaurant Supply), the furniture operations division, and the bedding division.
Bennett sits on the board of directors of the Hawai'i Angels, Hawai'i Venture Group, Pacific Venture Capital, Punahou Alumni Association, and the Honolulu Symphony. He graduated from Punahou School, and earned engineering degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Leigh-Ann is Vice President of DragonBridge Capital, LLC, a merchant bank that helps Chinese technology, life sciences, and clean tech companies with capital formation, joint ventures, M&A, venture capital, and other private equity needs. She also has more than 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She was formerly Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai`i technology companies. She was the founding Program Director of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies in Washington, D.C. as well as the Washington, D.C. lobbyist for the Japanese American Citizens League.
Previously, Leigh-Ann was an attorney concentrating on commercial and other civil litigation. She was counsel to Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu, of counsel to Fujiyama, Duffy & Fujiyama in Honolulu, and a partner in Erickson, Beasley & Hewitt in San Francisco (now Erickson, Beasley, Hewitt & Wilson in Oakland). She is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
Mark Rossi is Vice Chairman, Corporate Secretary, and a member of the Managing Committee at the Bank of Hawaii. He is also General Counsel and leads a team which services its clients in all aspects of Legal, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Government Relations, Corporate Security and Corporate Insurance Services.
Prior to joining the Bank of Hawaii, Mark was a partner at Lane Powell from 1996-2006, where he concentrated his practice on a broad array of banking issues. Lane Powell is a Seattle, Washington-based law firm of approximately 180 attorneys with six offices located in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and London, England. Mark served as the firm's Managing Partner and President from 2004-2006.
Mark gained significant banking experience while employed in the First Interstate Bank system from 1983-1996 in Seattle, Washington. During that period, he held various local and regional positions, including that of Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary.
A native of Minnesota, Mark obtained his B.A. in History from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota) in 1971. He received a J.D. from Willamette University (Salem, Oregon) in 1974. Mark is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and United States Supreme Court. He serves on the Boards of the Hawaii Chapter of the American Judicature Society and the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (HIPA).
Bee Leng Chua, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai'i technology companies. Bee Leng was the first executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business Administration at Hawaii Pacific University where she launched the school's business plan competition, the Stanford Innovation Tournament @ HPU and the Pappas Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.
Bee Leng was the founding director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and faculty member at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She also served on the Advisory and Vetting Committees of the Hong Kong Government's Cyberport IncuTrain Centre (www.cyberport.hk), as a mentor in the Incubation Centre of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks and as an assessor with the Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Programme (SERAP), Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), in the Hong Kong Government.
Bee Leng received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Ohio University. Originally from Singapore, Bee Leng lived and worked in Hong Kong for 18 years before coming to Hawai'i in 2007.
Kent Anderson is Executive Director of Family Promise of Hawai'i. He has 10 years of managerial experience in the nonprofit and private sectors and helped launch the organization in 2006. Over 80% of the guest families of Family Promise of Hawai'i transition from homelessness to sustainable housing, usually in 3-4 months. Kent served as 2007 volunteer Chair of Partners in Care, O'ahu's coalition of homeless social service providers. Family Promise of Hawai'i was a finalist for the Pacific Business News 2009 Nonprofit of the Year Award.
Kent has specialized in economic development, strategic planning, and performance-based management. Each organization under his direction operated within budget and significantly improved key metrics. Kent has been a guest speaker at national conferences for community building and mentoring. He has also worked for governmental organizations such as the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Peace Corps, Americorps, and the Florida Department of Health.
Susan Yamada is the Executive Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship & E-Business at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Previously, she spent 17 years working in senior management positions at various entrepreneurial start-up companies in California and Hawai'i. In Silicon Valley, she served as CEO and publisher of Upside Magazine, the first business magazine focused exclusively on serving the informational needs of technology executives. Under Susan's leadership, the company successfully diversified its interests to include online and book publishing, as well as the production of executive conferences.
In 1998, Susan founded TRUSTe, the first online privacy seal program to protect personal information on the Internet, and served on the management team for VEO Systems, a business-to-business software developer that was eventually sold to Commerce One in 1999. Since returning home to Hawai'i in 2000, Susan launched Get2Hawaii, a developer of web-based software that enables travel inventory to be bought and sold online. She also heads the Yamada Scott Family Foundation. The Foundation has awarded $300,000 to students and community organizations since 2000. Susan currently serves on the board of directors for several community organizations including the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii and KCAA Preschools.
Susan received her bachelor of business administration in travel from the University of Hawai'i College of Business and her MBA from San Jose State University in California.
Dave Kozuki is the founder and CEO of People Bridge, which develops Internet-based software for building neighborhood communities. People Bridge moved to Hawai'i from Silicon Valley in 2005. Prior to People Bridge, he was the VP of Business Development and Sales at PacifiCall, a developer of telecommunications software for mobile phones and PCs based in Palo Alto. At Sylantro of Campbell, Dave developed strategic alliances with domestic and international device manufacturers to interoperate with the Sylantro VoIP application server. As a program manager for the Net Generation group at IBM in Mountain View, Dave helped start the international Application Service Provider partner program ASP Prime. He ran a five-store retail chain as its president and held sales and marketing management positions with Sprint, IBM, and Pacific LightNet in Hawai'i. Dave graduated from UH Manoa with a BBA in Management Information Systems and Marketing.
Josh Levinson was formerly President and CEO of Community Links Hawai'i, a nonprofit incubator for innovative ideas and people. Josh was born and raised in Hawai'i, graduating from Punahou School before leaving Hawai'i for college.
While away from Hawai'i, Josh's experience included: working at the Center for Documentary Studies on a large oral history project documenting African-American life in the segregated South; public radio production at Marketplace Productions in Los Angeles; and working as a project ethnographer, documenting the occupational health hazards of commercial fishing in North Carolina.
Immediately prior to coming home to join Community Links Hawai'i, Josh was Deputy Director at the District of Columbia's premier public interest advocacy organization, the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, tackling some of the most intractable public policy problems facing our nation's capital city.
Some of Josh's little-known or forgotten accomplishments include co-founding a radio show on WXYC-FM in Chapel Hill, NC, called "Hell or High Water," and starting an ill-conceived company called "Dump, Inc." that offered to take out people's trash for a nominal fee.
Josh is a graduate of Duke University and holds a Master's degree in Folklore from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He lives in Kailua with his wife, son, and persnickety cat.
Dutch-born Henk Rogers is known internationally as a leader in the highly competitive electronic video game industry. After his studies in computer science and game theory at the University of Hawaii, Henk embarked on a highly successful career in Japan where he designed and programmed that country's first role-playing game, The Black Onyx, in the early 1980s. He is probably best known for his role in helping make Tetris the world's most popular video game after he built a strong relationship with the game's Soviet creator and won the distribution rights.
A serial entrepreneur, Henk moved to Hawaii in the 1990s and has formed several companies here, including Blue Planet Software, which manages the intellectual property rights to Tetris. Henk recently formed the Blue Planet Foundation with a mission to change the world's energy culture, raise global awareness of the imperative to implement clean renewable energy, and address the increasingly urgent climate crisis.
Bennett Wo is a Vice President of C.S. Wo & Sons, where his responsibilities include asset management, alternative investments, and internet applications. As a founding partner of Wo Capital Group, he oversees investments in private equity and venture capital.
Mark Rossi is Vice Chairman, Corporate Secretary, and a member of the Managing Committee at the Bank of Hawaii. He is also General Counsel and leads a team which services its clients in all aspects of Legal, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Government Relations, Corporate Security and Corporate Insurance Services.
Bee Leng Chua, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of HiBEAM, an accelerator for early stage Hawai'i technology companies. Bee Leng was the first executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the College of Business Administration at Hawaii Pacific University where she launched the school's business plan competition, the Stanford Innovation Tournament @ HPU and the Pappas Entrepreneurial Leadership Series.
Kent Anderson is Executive Director of Family Promise of Hawai'i. He has 10 years of managerial experience in the nonprofit and private sectors and helped launch the organization in 2006. Over 80% of the guest families of Family Promise of Hawai'i transition from homelessness to sustainable housing, usually in 3-4 months. Kent served as 2007 volunteer Chair of Partners in Care, O'ahu's coalition of homeless social service providers. Family Promise of Hawai'i was a finalist for the Pacific Business News 2009 Nonprofit of the Year Award.
Susan Yamada is the Executive Director of the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship & E-Business at the Shidler College of Business, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Previously, she spent 17 years working in senior management positions at various entrepreneurial start-up companies in California and Hawai'i. In Silicon Valley, she served as CEO and publisher of Upside Magazine, the first business magazine focused exclusively on serving the informational needs of technology executives. Under Susan's leadership, the company successfully diversified its interests to include online and book publishing, as well as the production of executive conferences.
Dutch-born Henk Rogers is known internationally as a leader in the highly competitive electronic video game industry. After his studies in computer science and game theory at the University of Hawaii, Henk embarked on a highly successful career in Japan where he designed and programmed that country's first role-playing game, The Black Onyx, in the early 1980s. He is probably best known for his role in helping make Tetris the world's most popular video game after he built a strong relationship with the game's Soviet creator and won the distribution rights.